


Guard Duty

by Trexi



Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Avengers: Infinity War Part 1 (Movie), Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-06
Updated: 2019-10-06
Packaged: 2020-11-25 19:40:03
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,205
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20917481
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Trexi/pseuds/Trexi
Summary: Quill doesn’t ruin the fight on Titan. The smarter Peter is entrusted with Infinity Gauntlet guard duty.





	Guard Duty

The gauntlet slides off, just like that, and then suddenly I’m falling through one of the wizard’s portals and crashing into a stone floor. The portal closes on Thanos’s shocked expression, and I just stare at the magic gauntlet in my hands. Where even am I right now? The wizard wouldn’t have put me somewhere unsafe, right? I’m pretty sure he was a good guy, all that stuff about being willing to sacrifice me and Mr Stark for the Time Stone aside.

Wherever I am, it’s really old looking, but also Earth-looking, so I guess the wizard portalled me home. Wait, did he portal me into his own home? This totally looks like the kind of place a wizard would live. Grand stairs and all. I kind of want to touch everything. But that’d be rude. And also, difficult while holding the gauntlet. I’m not about to just dump the thing on the ground or anything like that. Would that give the floor the power of the Infinity Stones? Nah. It doesn’t have fingers. Still, I feel like putting an almost all-powerful magical glove on the floor just so I can touch a wizard’s fancy looking artefacts wouldn’t be right.

Footsteps have me leaping to my feet, with energy I barely have, and shifting into a defensive stance. I tuck the gauntlet under my right arm and aim my webshooters at the approaching footsteps with my left. The wizard’s friend strolls into the foyer and pauses when he sees me. I lower my webshooter and wave not at all awkwardly. The wizard, because if he’s here, he’s probably another wizard, eyes the gauntlet under my arm and relaxes.

“Hi, I’m Spider-Man. Do you know where I can put this?” I hold up the gauntlet. “Because that scary giant purple grape guy had it before, but we kind of stole it from him. Not in a stealing-is-bad way ‘cause he was definitely a bad guy, wanted to kill half the universe and all that, so just this once the stealing was a good thing. I guess. Anyway, I don’t know if Mr Stark knows I’m here ‘cause the wizard portalled me here without saying anything. Which kind of makes sense if I’m meant to hide from the purple grape guy and his murder fam.”

The wizard sighs. “I’m blaming Strange for this.”

“So uh where exactly are we? I’m guessing Earth, which is already really cool that I just travelled in a portal that went that far, but I was just fighting the main boss on another planet all together, so I guess today’s just a day for cool yet immensely scary life experiences.”

“We’re in the New York Sanctum.”

“Are we going to be here for a while, Mr Wizard?”

“It’s Wong. And yes.”

“Do you mind me getting a little comfy then, Mr Wong? It’s just that I haven’t really had a break since we left for the field trip, and I was kind of up ‘til like 3am the night before patrolling, so after that trip across space and all the fighting, I’m pretty beat.”

Mr Wong looks at me like he can tell exactly how old I am and is not at all impressed that I was just in space fighting an alien. I only know because May gets the same expression after I come back from patrols.

“The Sanctum does not have ‘comfy’ places,” he says.

“That’s alright. I can make my own.” I scan the room for a good corner and start on my web cacoon. “You don’t uh mind if I get some webs over the place, right?” I ask, paused with a web connected from my shooter and the wall.

“Cleaning them will be Strange’s problem.”

“Ah, no it’s fine. They dissolve after a little bit. I mean the ones I’m using right now don’t dissolve quickly because otherwise they might do that while I’m napping, not that I’m about to nap, but that’s the top use of a web cacoon. Well, that and doing last minute essays on my phone in the middle of a patrol, but that’s besides the point. What was I saying again? Oh, yeah, these will dissolve after a couple of hours, so Mr Doctor Strange won’t have to worry about webs covering his house.”

Mr Wong doesn’t seem at all bothered as I make my web cacoon, gauntlet tucked under my arm. I know I could technically give it to him, but he hasn’t mentioned where I can put it yet, and I don’t want to assume that he wants to handle it directly. I get not wanting to touch something that can do a lot of damage. By the time I finish the cacoon, Mr Wong has a box of takeout that he’s eating, despite not leaving the room to get it. I kind of wish I could open a portal anywhere now. But I don’t think this is the right time to ask whether he can teach me magic.

“Do you happen to have an impenetrable vault lying around?” I ask, while crawling up the wall and flopping into my cacoon.

“Not presently,” Mr Wong says.

I stare up at the really high ceiling. “What about a really strong wardrobe? Gloves go in wardrobes, right?”

“Thanos would be able to break into any wardrobe we have.”

“Maybe we could fill it with cement or something, so nobody can put the murder glove on. No, wait, they could just take the gems and use them individually. Do you have any gem smashers lying around here? ‘Cause it seems to me that nobody should really be wielding this kind of power, so maybe it’s best that we just destroy them. You know?”

Mr Wong frowns. “Destroying a single Infinity Stone would upset the balance of the universe. Destroying them all could have untold consequences.”

“Are we talking untold consequences like after a bad hot dog, or–”

“It could potentially tear the universe.”

“That’s a little worse than a bad hot dog.”

The look Mr Wong gives me makes me want to hide away in my web cacoon and never come out. But I’m Spider-Man, so instead I sit up with my legs crossed, my head in my hands, and all-powerful gauntlet in my lap.

“We’ve got to hide it somewhere,” I point out, hopefully sounding like a mature superhero instead of a kid completely out of his league. “It wouldn’t be smart to separate the stones until after Thanos has been dealt with, right? Because almost all of our fighters are facing him, his kids, and his army right now, so we don’t have the resources to secure six different locations, seven if you count the gauntlet. It’s best we keep them all together until everything’s settled down, and then we can split them all up again to protect against the next threat who tries obtaining this much power.”

“That sounds like an excellent plan,” a new voice says, and wow, how long has Pepper Potts being standing there for?

Wait, did she just call my plan excellent? MJ is going to be so jealous, once she interrogates me for every single detail of this conversation of course. Not that I can tell her, because super confidential information about the fate of the universe is being discussed, though I don’t think that’ll keep MJ back for long. She straight up called me Spider-Man after Homecoming after all, and then she acted like nothing big happened and went back to calling me loser. That girl confuses me on my best day.

“Oh, hey, Miss Potts. I know I said that I wanted my school to do space camp, but it turns out that I’m not that big of a fan of the vacuum of space, artificial atmospheres and different gravities. Maybe it’s just an association thing right now, and I’ll get over it. But for the next year or so, at least, I’d really prefer to stick to the weightlessness of webslinging rather than literally anything else.”

Miss Potts smiles at me. I’m pretty sure there’s relief in her expression and all, but that doesn’t really make sense because I’m just her fiancé’s intern.

“Oh, right, last I saw Mr Stark was okay. Like we were fighting this scary giant grape purple guy that everyone was calling Thanos, but we stole his glove, so he can’t reach his final form, and I’m pretty sure that they’ll all be fine fighting him without it. I’m not entirely sure why they haven’t come here yet, but maybe they just want to deal with Thanos’s murder fam before they can accidentally lead any bad guys to the fancy glove.”

“Hello, Peter,” Miss Potts says.

I fall out of my web-hammock. “_Miss Potts_, I’m wearing the mask. You’re not meant to call me that when I’m dressed as Spider-Man.”

“Guess I won’t be able to tell a certain May Parker that her nephew is back from space.”

I scramble to my feet. “Someone told May I went on the big flying donut? I am so grounded. She’s not going to let me Spider-Man for months, maybe even years. How angry was she? Is this a until-she-forgives-me kind of thing, or a not-under-my-roof kind of thing? Because I’m just not in a position to move out, you know? I’m sure Mr Stark would do something about that if I mentioned it, but I don’t want to guilt-trip him into giving me money or anything. If I wasn’t going to get that money as regular Peter Parker, then I shouldn’t be getting it as Spider-Man. Also, I’m pretty sure he’ll remember how angry he was when I kind of went on that ship against his orders, but I did technically help out a lot. I’m sure they could’ve handled it without me, but I like to think that I made things a little easier. Oh, yeah, and Mr Stark totally made me a real Avenger, so that means May can’t stop me from being Spider-Man. Avengers are immune to being grounded.”

That’s definitely a real thing and nobody can tell me otherwise.

Miss Potts just smiles. “Could I please have the gauntlet for a moment, Peter?” she asks.

“Sure, Miss Potts,” I say, handing her the murder glove. “Don’t put it on though. I’m pretty sure that kind of raw power could kill a normal human. Not that you’re normal, of course. You’re practically superhuman considering how you’ve kept Stark Industries together through so many attempts from the media to drag it down whenever there’s Avengers or Iron Man issues. One of my best friends worships the ground you walk on, which really, is what everyone should be doing because you’re kind of sort of the most awesome person ever, just saying. Don’t tell Mr Stark, but you’re my favourite CEO, and not just because you actually like your job whereas Mr Stark hated it.”

“Thank you,” Miss Potts says.

She pulls out a silver hair clip that’s definitely some sort of nano-tech because it grows into a black box that Miss Potts promptly throws on the ground. She places the gauntlet inside and stands back as the nanites form a sealed lid, completely encasing the murder glove in a thick layer of metal. Miss Potts then simply sits on top of the box, shifts her bracelet into an Iron Man gauntlet and crosses one leg over the other.

“You’re so cool,” I mumble, and Miss Potts definitely hears me, but she doesn’t tease me for it like Mr Stark definitely would. “And I so get the whole hiding in plain sight thing, but won’t it be better if you’re somewhere slightly more hidden rather than right where I fell through the wizard’s portal? This place seems like the kind of place that’d have a super fancy study, right? Maybe if you were there, you’d be in a better position to coordinate relief efforts and other SI stuff that I’m sure you’d prefer doing instead of this. You could take your makeshift chair with you, and that way there’s way less of chance of someone figuring out that you’re literally sitting on almost infinite power.”

Miss Potts turns to Mr Wong. “Is there a study here?” she asks.

Mr Wong opens up a portal to what’s the grandest study I’ve ever seen and slings the portal to the side, taking Miss Potts with it. I climb back up to my web cacoon.

“I could make you a hanging chair, if you want, Mr Wong,” I offer.

Mr Wong walks through the still open portal and closes it behind him.

“Okay, then. I’ll just stay here and keep watch. If anyone arrives, I’m sure my dying screams will be enough to warn you.” I shake my head. “Really, Parker? Dying screams?” I mutter to myself.

I’d totally be able to take whoever comes for the gauntlet first. I stayed alive in a fight against Thanos after all, and he was all kinds of scary.

*

It is only because of my awesome reflexes that I don’t crack my phone screen when Captain America bursts through the doors, and I fall out of my cacoon. I tuck my phone away and walk forward to greet him like I wasn’t just doing an essay while on guard duty.

“Hi, I’m Spider-Man. Sorry for stealing your shield, except not really because you abandoned Mr Stark in Siberia, and I kind of want to web you up and leave you dangling in the middle of Times Square.”

Captain America frowns. “You’re the one they entrusted with the gauntlet?”

“Considering I was on another planet fighting Thanos, and Mr Stark and I were the ones who got the glove off, yeah, Mr Doctor Strange sent me away with it.”

“Son, just tell me where the gauntlet is, and I’ll be on my way.”

I fold my arms. “Whose hands is the glove’s safest in?” I ask.

“The Avengers’.”

I make a ‘wrong answer’ noise. “Nobody should be using this, sir. And even if you were right, I’m the only Avenger here. You left. And while I can get behind protecting your best friend, even I can understand that one person isn’t worth the entire world. That’s just not how it works, Mr Rogers. Because of you, the world doesn’t trust the Avengers anymore. I’m lucky that I haven’t been shot by the NYPD while saving kittens from trees.”

“You know the saving kittens from trees thing is just a stereotype?” Captain America asks.

“I’ll have you know that people like you much better when you rescue their furry family members than when you go against over a hundred nations because you think you know best,” I retort. “What are you doing here, Mr Rogers?”

Captain America looks confused that he has to answer but does anyway. “Thor tracked the Infinity Stones here after killing Thanos. I volunteered to go with him while the others are dealing with the rest of Thanos’s army.”

“Then where’s King Thor?”

“He was right behind me,” Captain America answers, looking sheepish of all things. “I may have run ahead because I wasn’t sure who Tony left the gauntlet with.”

“You ran ahead,” I deadpan, and boy, I cannot believe this guy used to be one of my heroes. “Did you not believe that whoever Mr Stark trusted had things handled? Or did you see some sort of sign that one of Thanos’s people had compromised this location? Or did you just feel the need to show up first, so you could get your hands on a power that nobody should possess?”

“Listen, son–”

“No, you listen to me, Mr Rogers. I am not your _son_, nor your teammate, nor your friend, and let me tell you, it would kill a younger version of me to say that, but frankly, the survival of the universe is at stake, and you left Mr Stark when he needed you most, so I am not about to listen to the man who betrayed the Avengers like they were nothing more than some garage band. Mr Stark may one day forgive you, if only because we didn’t lose today, but I will never forget just what the Earth’s defenders are worth to you.”

Thor chooses that moment to stride through the doors, a smile on his face that drops at the sight of a chastised Captain America. I ignore the national icon in favour of the strongest Avenger.

I bow. “Wait, am I meant to curtsey too? MJ would say I shouldn’t assume based on Earth gender stereotypes. I’mma do it. Cover my bases.” I curtesy. “So awesome to meet you, King Thor. I’m a huge fan. You’re like my favourite Avenger ever, except Iron Man when Mr Stark’s in hearing range. He gets the sad face whenever I say differently. I’m Spider-Man. We haven’t met, but like I fought this thief using alien hybrid weapons who was wearing a mask of your face once. That wasn’t fun. My favourite sandwich shop got blown up.

“Anyway, I’m a fellow Avenger. I wasn’t yesterday, but then I went onto the flying donut, and Mr Stark made me an Avenger, which was before we met the Guardians of the Galaxy and fought Thanos with them. Now I’m meant to wait here with the magic glove until someone tells me what’s going on, though according to Captain America, you killed Thanos, which is good. Normally I wouldn’t condone killing someone, but he was super bad, and I have at least a hundred bruises from fighting him.

“It’s been a really intense day. Almost as bad as that time I fought the Winter Soldier and Falcon at once and went one-on-one with Captain America. Or Homecoming night. That was a whole thing with having to push an entire crushed building off my back and fighting my date’s dad on a plane while he had these mechanical wings. Not fun. Would not recommend.”

Thor turns to Captain America. “It appears that I have missed a lot of recent events on Midgard.”

Captain America sighs. “Spider-Man’s one of Tony’s.”

“He gains his abilities from a suit?” Thor asks.

I cross my arms, which are still a little sore from the afore-mentioned fight, but I manage it anyway. “Hey, I can literally bench a building while wearing regular clothes. Also, I can stick to surfaces. And I have this cool danger sense thing going on. Plus, flexibility. Not to mention, the webbing was my creation, not Mr Stark’s. He just upgraded my webshooters and gave me two awesome suits. Like, I’m wearing two different Spider-Man suits right now. It’s kind of weird.”

Thor bows, and I almost pass out from the sheer awesomeness of this moment. “It is an honour to meet you, Man of Spiders. If it would not trouble you, could you please tell me where the Infinity Gauntlet is hidden?”

“Oh sure. Miss Potts has it.”

“You entrusted the fate of the universe with Pepper Potts?” Captain America questions.

I stare at him like he’s grown another head, which considering the untested super soldier serum coursing through his veins, might just be possible. My unimpressed tone probably reflects that. “Obviously.”

**Author's Note:**

> This isn't meant to be a character bashing fic. Peter's had a very long day, and he's still getting over his recent disillusionment of one of his heroes.
> 
> Serious note aside, it's never not fun to write Peter, and I'm hoping that once the final weeks of my Bachelor's pass, I'll have more time to work on all the fandoms I love.


End file.
